LAKEWOOD — An Ocean County school district under fire for hiring a $600,000 attorney has turned around and hired another lawyer. His job? Defend the other attorney's $600,000 contract.

The hiring of the new attorney is sure to add to Lakewood's already bloated legal budget, even after taxpayers were asked to bail out a district that was struggling to keep teachers on the payroll.

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The Lakewood Board of Education in September approved hiring an attorney from Greenberg, Dauber, Epstein & Tucker at $400 per hour. Associates from the firm will be paid $275 an hour while paralegals will bill at $100, the Asbury Park Press reported this week.

The new legal team was hired to defend the district's decision to spend $600,000 on the hiring of Michael I. Inzulbuch.

The state Attorney General's Office in August demanded that the district explain how Inzulbuch's hiring was lawful.

A New Jersey 101.5 analysis of spending by K-12 public school districts finds that Lakewood spends the highest percentage of its budget on legal bills.

While Lakewood has been spending big on attorneys and legal settlements, it has been having trouble trying to pay for the education of its students.

In May, the state gave Lakewood $8.5 million to avoid teacher layoffs that would have resulted in laying off 106 teachers, which would have required class sizes of 50 students. Before the state bailout — which other districts did not receive — Lakewood school officials considered asking the municipal government to transfer $15 million of the township surplus to the schools.

The state investigation into the legal contract was prompted by a complaint against the district by the Education Law Center — a firm that has sued the state to ensure increased funding for poverty-stricken districts. The complaint notes that Lakewood is paying Inzulbuch monthly, irrespective of any work he does. Inzulbuch's firm does not submit itemized invoices for work before he is paid. He also gets $29,000 in family health benefits paid by the district.

The Asbury Park Press reported this summer that Inzulbuch was behind at least 80 lawsuits filed by families seeking to place their children in special education facilities. Lakewood has one of the highest special-education tuition costs in the state.

District officials, including the state-appointed monitor, defended the hiring of Inzulbuch by saying it would be smarter to have him working for them instead of against them.

$1.5M in legal bills

Lakewood last year spent $1.5 million on legal bills, or $113 per student. The state median for per-pupil legal spending by K-12 districts was $35, according to state Department of Education data.

In Ocean County, only Long Beach Island spent more pupil — $203. But that district's statistic is driven by its small student population; its legal costs amounted to $62,100 for the year. Lakewood, however, spent 0.9 percent of its budget on legal bills — the highest share in the county as well as for any public K-12 district in the state.

Lakewood's legal spending has been a constant annual expense for some time. Two years ago, the district was spending even more, about $139 per pupil on legal bills.

School district legal spending

Find your district below to see how much it spent on legal bills last year. The list is divided by counties and then sorted by percentage of the budget that was spent on legal services, ranked from highest to lowest.